2018 British MotoGP Friday News

Michael Scott | August 24, 2018

2018 British MotoGP Friday News

Photos by Gold & Goose

Silverstone Surface Panned

Silverstone’s full resurface, aimed at getting rid of bumps, might have hoped for at least a mixed reception. Alas, the comments were universal.

“It’s a disaster,” said Marc Marquez, a sentiment widely echoed; while there was widespread puzzlement that a track resurfaced mainly to get rid of bumps could actually have become (at least in some places) more bumpy than before.

There was also a common element of praise, summed up by Valentino Rossi. “The grip is a bit better, but overall it is better because before there was a minimum of four different surfaces, but now it is one surface.”

Jack Miller joked: “I asked Ohlins for Motocross suspension.” The track grip was improving as rubber was laid down, but “it’s difficult … a handful. But I’m enjoying it, because my bike is working well.”

It was, he continued, “bumpy in strange place. I don’t think it’s because of the [Formula 1] cars. It’s more like a road laid on soft soil.”

Cal Crutchlow, who had earlier in the year pronounced the track much improved when he tried it on a road bike, concurred. “Maybe some are from the cars, but when I spoke to the F1 guys they said it was bumpy when they first came here.”

Pedrosa said that the bumps were fooling the electronics into shutting down to avoid wheelspin, which was in fact just bouncing; but that if you turned the electronics down then you went sideways in the corners.

“You have to fight on every exit,” said Dovizioso. “It’s bad for everybody when you have to fight the bumps at the best track in Europe.”

For Rossi, it was “more than dangerous, it is difficult to manage.”

He continued: “The secret to riding a bumpy track is .. to don’t care.”

The other difficulty on the first day was strong winds, also referred to by several riders.

“At high speed with the wind the bike is like a sail,” explained Pedrosa.

Close Call on the Track

Two Ducati riders had a narrow escape on Friday afternoon. One was factory rider Jorge Lorenzo, who was on an out lap at the time; the other satellite teamster Danilo Petrucci, approaching at very high speed from behind.

As Lorenzo swung across into a left-hand corner, closing the racing line, Petrucci was hard on the brakes behind, one foot down and smoking as he narrowly managed to slow enough to miss Lorenzo’s back wheel by mere centimetres, before running off into the gravel.

Petrucci’s view was clear. “Lorenzo is a rider who doesn’t think there are any other riders on the track.”

Lorenzo admitted he was not at full speed and was trying to warm his tyres, but said: “A rider behind should be paying attention to what is in front, and have enough braking distance. If he had hit me I would have gone to the moon.”

Race direction looked into it, but elected not to punish Lorenzo.

Crutchlow Set for 2019

While his compatriots Bradley Smith and Scott Redding appear to be headed out of the championship, top British rider Cal Crutchlow had the opposite news at his home GP, after his HRC contract with the LCR team was extended in the previous week for another year.

Already signed up for 2019, HRC added another year to keep him going until 2020. He joined the independent LCR team, owned and run by former rider Lucio Cecchinello, in 2015 after three years on a satellite Yamaha; and has enjoyed his best results on the RC213V. Victory in this year’s Argentine GP was his third win, after two last year.

After four years, “I’ll be with the team for another three. It’s good news – the longest I’ve been with any team,” he said.

He was “by far the highest-paid satellite-team rider, but I don’t think I am slowing down as a rider, and I wanted to stay with Honda.” He added: “I think it will be my last contract, but then I said that when I signed previously at the end of 2017.”

His comments about both the team and HRC, who contracted him directly for 2018 and 2019, have always been loyally positive.

His factory status also acknowledges his value as a test and development rider. In the confirmation statement, HRC president Yoshishige Nomura said: “By hard work and getting many good results he has contributed a lot to Honda … and always gives us very useful feedback for the evolution of the RC213V.”

Bautista Headed to WSBK

Out of options in the GP paddock, 2006 125 World Champion Alvaro Bautista confirmed he is to switch to World Superbikes next year with the factory Ducati team.

The Spanish star, who had won races in 125 and 250, and claimed podiums in MotoGP, will take Marco Melandri’s place in the Aruba Ducati squad alongside Chas Davies on the V4 Panigale in the production-bike squad.

With his current Angel Nieto team giving way next year to the new Petronas satellite Yamaha squad, Bautista’s hopes of picking up that ride came to naught when it was confirmed that Quartararo would be joining Morbidelli there.

The lifeline from a top-flight Superbike team was not enough to conceal his disappointment as he spoke of his regret at leaving the MotoGP paddock after 16 years.

His ninth season had started badly, he admitted, after difficulty adapting to the Ducati GP17; but once finding his way he had claimed seven top ten finishes in the last eight races, including a strong fifth in Germany. “I feel motivated and strong on the bike,” he said.

“Normally you ride in one category, and you don’t move to the next until you win or even fight for the championship.” But things had changed, and this year most positions in MotoGP had been taken “after the first two or three races”. With no doors open in MotoGP he had been reluctant to consider several offers for Moto2 in its place. The Ducati offer was a reputation-preserving escape for the 33 year-old.

Petronas Taking Over Yamaha Satellite Squad

Petronas press conference, British MotoGP 2018

The worst-kept secret in the paddock was confirmed at Silverstone with a lengthy formal announcement of the Petronas Yamaha MotoGP team competing from next year, taking over from the long-serving Tech 3 satellite team, and extending the involvement of the Sepang International Circuit (SIC) and Malaysian sponsors Petronas across all three classes.

There were no surprises, with MotoGP riders confirmed as Franco Morbidelli and current Moto2 rider Fabio Quartararo; Moto2’s Malaysian Khairul Idham Pawi switching from Honda Team Asia; and John McPhee replacing Adam Norrodin alongside Ayumu Sasaki. (Norrodin will be supported in the Spanish CEV Moto2 series for two years, to give him the chance to mature.)

As well as all the riders, Yamaha management and existing Petronas Motos 2 and 3 team manager Johan Stigefelt (the new team director), plus Dorna’s Carmelo Ezpeleta, the conference was hosted by Malaysia’s Minister for Youth and Sport, the Chairman of SIC as well as the CEO, and the CEO of Petronas, making for some top-heavy speechifying before matters relating to racing could be addressed.

It was, said the SIC chairman, “a giant step for us”; while the Minister spoke about “the ecosystem of motorsport” inspiring and involving large numbers of Malaysian youth.

As encouraging from the paddock’s point of view was the increased commitment from Petronas, spreading welcome sponsorship money and potentially attracting other corporate backing, according to the SIC chairman.

The new MotoGP team will be supplied with one full factory machine, and one “B-spec” bike for next year, with the “A-spec” bike earmarked for the more experienced Franco Morbidelli, with one year of MotoGP experience as well as a Moto2 championship in his cabinet.

This was confirmed by the CEO of Yamaha Motor Racing Lin Jarvis, who said that Morbidelli’s bike at the start of the year would be the equivalent of those supplied to Rossi and Vinales in the factory team. He would be third in line for any mid-season developments, but at the same time there was the opportunity to develop the machine to suit his personal style.

The other advantage of the satellite team would be to have young talent potentially on stream to replace the factory riders when the time came.

Finally, “having four riders on the grid is better for the brand,” he said.

Aspar Martinez’ Team to Moto2

The Petronas team is taking over the grid slot currently occupied by the Angel Nieto team., owned and run by former tiddler multi-champion Jorge “Aspar” Martinez, will be dropping from MotoGP to Moto2 next season, planning a two-rider squad alongside their existing Moto3 squad’

The rider line-up has yet to be confirmed, according to sporting director Gino Borsoi; but they will be adding to the numbers using the KTM chassis with the new-next-year Triumph-powered class.

Ground Control to Major Tom

DREW FEUSTEL, NASA press interview, British MotoGP 2018

“Hey mother earth, won’t you bring me back down – down safely to the sea?” Not everyone who “wanted to be a spaceman” would necessarily choose that for splashdown site. Current International Space Station incumbent Andrew J Feustel would doubtless prefer a soft landing at a grand prix track, in time for the big race.

The NASA astronaut, a celeb MotoGP fan whose posted from-space snaps of MotoGP circuits are well-known, had to hope that his 90-minute lap of the earth might coincide with the climax of the 18 laps of Sunday’s race, and that his binoculars might let him pick out the action.

Drew was a long-distance guest at the pre-event Press Conference on Thursday at Silverstone, somewhat upstaging the riders – Marquez, Rossi, Dovi, Lorenzo, Crutchlow and Bautista – as he appeared floating weightless on a big screen, adopting a sideways posture at times as he answered questions from the wide-eyed riders.

Among the more obvious challenges of space (showering and other bathroom functions), he told interrogator Bautista, was being “unable to lie down and relax to sleep.” Zero or micro-gravity meant spending all one’s time floating in the semi-seated position in which we saw him. The relaxing moment of taking your weight off your feet is not available.

Yamaha Looking Stronger

Yamaha riders came to Silverstone fresh from tests at Misano with renewed hopes, after the “bottom of our crisis” management apology greeted their worst-yet performance at the Austrian GP.

There were no new parts at the tests, but clearly some demonstration of a more positive attitude towards solving the problems.

As importantly, unlike the Red Bull Ring’s several slow corners followed by long straights, the much more complex layout of the highly technical Silverstone circuit put less emphasis on the M-1’s persistent wheelspin and weak acceleration and instead played to its strength of good corner speed.

“On paper, we should be stronger here than the last few races,” said Rossi on Thursday evening.

In the first free practice the proof was readily forthcoming, with Vinales fastest and Rossi second.